Victor Eruotor THE ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF TOURISM IN DE- VELOPING COUNTRIES Case study: Lagos, Nigeria. Thesis CENTRIA UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES Degree Programme in Tourism May2014 ABSTRACT CENTRIA UNIVERSITY OF AP- Date Author PLIED SCIENCES Victor Eruotor Kokkola-Pietarsaari Unit May 2014 Degree programme Tourism Name of thesis THE ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF TOURISM IN DEVELOPING COUN- TRIES: case study Lagos, Nigeria. Instructor Pages 37 + 5 pages Supervisor Katarina Broman Africa is blessed with natural resources, such as natural flowing water, beach and safari wild life which makes Africa a great continent. There are numerous countries in Africa with beautiful tourist attraction which can compete with what is achieved in rest part of the world. Nigeria has abundant tourism components that could make her the leading tourism provider in Africa. There are numerous attractions ranging from places of natural beauty to cultural and historical heritage. The aim of the research was to assess the importance of tourism in Nigeria and sug- gest solution to the development of tourism in Nigeria and developing countries. The objective of this work was to promote the development of tourism in Nigeria and identify the tourism potentials of developing countries and to suggest ways to im- prove the development of tourism in Nigeria. key words: Africa, coastal area, developing countries, tourist attraction. ABSTRACT TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Research Problem ....................................................................................... 3 1.2 Aim of the thesis ......................................................................................... 3 1.3 Limitation of study ...................................................................................... 4 2. TOURISM DEVELOPMENT ............................................................................... 5 2.1 Developing countries .................................................................................. 6 2.2 Measure and concept of development ...................................................... 7 2.3 Tourism Development as a process .......................................................... 8 3. TOURISM MARKETING ..................................................................................... 9 3.1 Tourism planning ...................................................................................... 10 3.2 Economic impacts of tourism .................................................................. 10 4. AFRICA’S TOURISM POTENTIALS ................................................................ 12 4.1 Tourist attractions in Nigeria .................................................................... 13 4.1.1 Lagos bar beach ................................................................................. 14 4.1.2 First storey building in Nigeria .......................................................... 15 4.1.3 Badagry beach .................................................................................... 16 4.1.4 Lekki beach ......................................................................................... 18 4.1.5 Kuramo beach ..................................................................................... 19 4.2 Economic value of Lagos coastline ......................................................... 20 4.3 Problem of Lagos coastline ...................................................................... 20 5. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND ANALYSIS ............................................. 22 5.1 Method of Research .................................................................................. 22 5.2 Qualitative research method .................................................................... 22 5.3 Analysis ...................................................................................................... 22 5.3.1 Analysis of the employee’s interview ............................................... 22 5.3.2 Analysis of the resident´s interview .................................................. 25 5.4 Observations ............................................................................................. 27 5.4.1 The importance of tourism in Nigeria ............................................... 27 5.4.2 Economic impact ................................................................................ 28 5.5 Findings ..................................................................................................... 28 6. RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY .......................................................................... 30 7. RECOMMENDATION AND CONCLUSION ..................................................... 32 7.1 Recommendation ...................................................................................... 32 7.2 Conclusion ....................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. REFERENCES ........................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. APPENDICES ............................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. GRAPHS GRAPH 1 Lagos bar beach 10 GRAPH 2 First storey building in Nigeria 11 GRAPH 3 Badagry beach 13 GRAPH 4 Lekki beach 14 GRAPH 5 Kuramo beach 15 1 1 INTRODUCTION Tourism is a major force in any economy in the world; it is one sector of the economy that has a global importance. In this world of globalization where change is constant, tourism tends to improve the economy of the third world countries and also have an impact upon the host community. Tourism is the largest and fastest growing industry in the world. International organizations support tourism for its contribution to world peace, poverty alleviation and also intermingling of people and culture. Africa, which is classified as a third world country, is blessed with great heritage and tourism potentials, ranging from different countries and their resources. Africa is truly blessed with nature and this can benefit the host country and improve the standard of living of the population. Tourism creates jobs and source of internal revenue for host communities through money generated from games reserves, and inflow of tourists from abroad. African countries are surrounded by coastal line which makes them more attractive to tourist, such like the beaches in Lagos, Nigeria, the world’s highest sand dunes in South Africa, the wild life experience in the safari in Tanzania. With these tourism po- tentials, it makes tourism very important in developing countries taking into considera- tion the untapped natural resources blessed within the shores of these African coun- tries. The empirical part of this thesis involved the use of qualitative research method, which includes interviews and observations. The findings of this study revealed that the coastal line of Lagos as a tourist attraction has a positive economic impact on the peo- ple of the area in terms of job creation, income generation, infrastructural development and other positive elements. Though, there seems to be problems within the region and for that reasons, few recommendations are put forward to give likely solutions and they are: Provision of infrastructural facilities to enhance development in the area. 2 The expansion of the coast line and to decongest the already existing ones can help to achieve the development plan of tourism. If these recommendations can be followed, the coastal line of Lagos will be an attractive tourist destination in years to come. 3 1. RESEARCH PROBLEM Despite that tourism is of great importance to developing countries, there are still some negative aspect, ranging from insecurity of tourist down to environmental hazards and fear of kidnapping. Infrastructure decay in most developing nations also adds to the problem associated with research on the subject matter. Another major problem is political instability of developing countries ranging from civil unrest to economic crisis which leads to inflation and devalue of currency. But having said this, the governments with the help of international agencies such as the United Nation (UN), World Health Organization (WHO), have both been able to put in place programs to curtail the excesses of this problem. (Khoje 2013.) Apart from the problems associated with developing countries, the economic benefits are more com- pared to its problems, which will be discussed in the later chapters. 1.1 Aim of the thesis The main aim of this report is to assess the importance of tourism in Nigeria and suggest more ideals in the development of the tourism sector in Nigeria so as to make a significant contribution to the economy. The objective of this report is to promote tourism develop- ment in Nigeria, and to identify the tourism potentials of Nigeria. 4 1.2 Limitation of study It is possible to encounter problems in carrying out the research aimed for in this re- port, because this research is based on Nigeria which is a developing country and there is tendency of facing some problems which might affect the accuracy of the survey in achieving the desired result. Another factor is the inability of respondent to give useful information about the re- search work, based on certain individual motives and also not cooperating with the in- terviewer tends to limit effectiveness of the research. Distance is also a limiting factor considering the fact that the research is carried out in Nigeria, while the researcher is schooling in